In one of my hiking posts about the Southern Balcony in Chamonix I mentioned that my knee began acting up during the hike. This was on day one of our trip to Chamonix. We originally planned to do a second hike the next day on the mountains on the opposite side of the city, along the Northern Balcony, but there was no way that I could do it given my knee situation.
We re-adjusted our plan on day two and decided to do a few excursions instead, which actually worked out really well and made for some pretty incredible experiences. I'd even go as far as saying that they were better than the hike would have been.
We still got to see the same views that we would have seen, but with less work. It was a win win situation in the end I think.
The first excursion was taking a Cog Rail train up the mountain to Mer de Glace, a glacier that's set in a valley between two mountains (see photo below). The train in the above photo was not the one we took up the mountain but a historical one used in the past that was sitting on display outside the station.
The price for the train and visit to Mer de Glace was €37 but if you did both the Aiguille de Midi excursion, which cost €57 on its own, and the glacier, then the total price was only €70. We had planned to definitly go up to Aiguille de Midi that day so it seemed like an no brainer to tack on the train ride and glacier for only an extra €13 more.
But enough about the pricing. It may be helpful for those wishing to travel the area, but this post was meant to be about the train itself.
The train departed from the central station in Chamonix, Le Gare de Chamonix and took about 20 minutes or so to travel up to the glacier. The train was packed to the gills on the way up in the morning but less so on the way back only a few hours later.
The seats were old and wooden but all in all it wasn't a bad ride, even in spite of the crowd.
A smooth and easy ride.
We got to sit by the window on the way back so we got to look out at the great views of the opposite mountain range.
It was especially neat seeing the area of our hike the previous day. It's hard to see in the photos but in person we could see the cable car and station from Le Flégère where we started the hike and the Altitude 2000 restaurant where we ended up having lunch.
I marked them with arrows on the photo. On the right side is the starting point and on the left is the restaurant.
The train itself was an old style Cog Rail, which also go by the name Rack Rails and/or Rack and Pinion trains.
These types of trains have a toothed rack that is situated in between two running rails and the train itself has a toothed wheel that connects to the rack with interlocking teeth. Its essentially like a large gear.
The wheel only moves in one direction on the rack so the train cannot fall backwards and slip down the mountain.
These types of train are used on steep inclines above a certain grade percentage where there is a risk of slipping. I believe that it has something to do with friction and that it's all very science-ey and way beyond my knowledge. But you get the just of the idea though I'm sure.
These types of trains are quite common on mountains and you see them a lot at different locations that are hilly.
The train was pretty fun actually and was kind of an activity in itself.
In my next post I'll show you the Mer de Glace glacier and the ice tunnel that we went into.
